(Editor’s Note) In 1997
- 1998, Matt McLaughlin penned a special Anthology of historical pieces in
honor of the 50th Anniversary of NASCAR entitled "50 Years of NASCAR
Racing." Matt has entrusted the entire collection, minus one or two that
were misfiled back then and cannot be salvaged, to my tender, loving care.

As NASCAR turns 70, the
Anthology itself will celebrate a 20th anniversary through 2018, and will run
again here on Race Fans Forever. As before, there is no record of which pieces
came first, so it will appear in the sequence presented earlier. Please, sit
back and enjoy as you take a journey back through the pages of history and
perhaps relive a memory or two.

As always, many thanks
to Matt, and God bless you my friend. ~PattyKay

· At the 1963 race in Riverside, California, Richard
Petty drove a Plymouth equipped with an automatic transmission as an experiment
for Chrysler, who had an extensive program of developing automatic
transmissions for drag racing. (Mainly because their manual transmissions were
junk) The experiment didn't fare too well and Richard dropped out after 27 laps
with transmission failure. Years earlier, Tim Flock actually won a Daytona
Beach and Road course event in a Chrysler equipped with an automatic
transmission.

· Speaking of Richard Petty, does anywhere remember where
he ran his first NASCAR Grand National (now Winston Cup) event? It was at the
Canadian National Exposition Speedway in Toronto, Canada, July 18th, 1958. His
dad, Lee Petty won the event. That race and one July 1st 1952 in Niagara Falls
Ontario remain the only two points paying races ever run on foreign soil.

· Dale Earnhardt has never won a pole at Martinsville…
but his car has. Dale was unable to get to the track in time for the 1989 fall
race due to the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo. NASCAR allowed Jimmy Hensley to
substitute for him and Hensley put the 3 car on the pole. (Editor's note: That pole also earned Gentleman Jimmy a spot in the
1990 Busch Class. By luck of the draw, he started from the pole, driving a car
provided by Rob Moroso, not Richard Childress, and
finished 10th, which was dead last, one lap down to eventual winner, Ken
Schrader)

· Herman "The Turtle" Beam made an
embarrassing mistake during his qualifying race for the 1960 Daytona 500. He
was so excited to get into the event that he forgot to put on his crash helmet
and remains to date the only driver ever black flagged for not wearing a
helmet.

· Al Keller won the race in Linden, New Jersey, on a
road course set up on an airport's runways, on June 13, 1954. Keller was
driving a Jaguar, which remains to date the only foreign car ever to win an
event in NASCAR's top division.

· In 1963, Joe Weatherly won the Grand National
Championship driving, at various points during the season, a Pontiac, Dodge,
Chrysler, Plymouth, and Mercury.

· On August 16, 1963, at the Winston Salem
quarter-mile oval, Bill Whitley drove a Corvette….to a dead last place finish.
Smokey Cook beat him by two positions in an MG.

· In 1950, the second year of Grand National racing,
10 out of 19 events were held north of the Mason Dixon line.

· In 1952, Hudson automobiles won 27 out of 34 races.

· The last dirt track race in Grand National
competition was held September 30th 1970, at the one-mile oval in Raleigh,
North Carolina. Richard Petty was the winner.

· 1971 was the first year Winston was the title
sponsor of NASCAR's premier division. Of the tracks that held races that year,
19 no longer run Winston Cup events.

· There was no Daytona 500 in 1974. It was the Daytona
450. Because of the fuel crisis, Bill France asked all track owners to cut
their event's length by 10 per cent in the early part of that season.
Coincidentally, the Firecracker 400 was the first race that ran at full length
that year.

· During the period from 5/30 to 8/27 1971 there were
17 events. Richard Petty or Bobby Allison won all but two of them. Bobby Isaac
and Charlie Glotzbach won the other two races.

· Richmond remains the only track to date where all
three Pettys, Lee, Richard and Kyle have won an event.

· Curtis Turner was once ticketed for driving 57 miles
per hour in a 25 mile per hour zone… in reverse.

· At the Riverside race, June 21st 1987, Rick Hendrick
had five cars entered. Tim Richmond won the race in one of those cars. Other
drivers included Darrell Waltrip, Benny Parsons, Geoff Bodine, and Jim
Fitzgerald who was 65 years old at the time. (He was Paul Newman's racing
partner)

· Anyone remember the name of Cale Yarborough's
brother who also raced in NASCAR's ranks? Sorry, it wasn't LeeRoy, who was not
related to Cale and in fact spelled his last name differently (Yarbrough). Cale's brother J.C. ran in two events in 1969. LeeRoy had a
brother Eldon who ran in three Grand National events. To add a little more
confusion there was also an Eddie Yarboro who raced
in the late 60's and 70's. Don't feel bad if you thought Cale and LeeRoy were
brothers. So did I until recently. (Thanks, Gary
Christopher.)

· In 1993 Richard Petty's car, driven by Rick Wilson,
carried the number 44 not 43. Richard had been hoping NASCAR would retire his
number, but when he found out it was up for grabs, he quickly switched back to
"43" in 1994.

· Janet Guthrie ( who raced at Indy this year)
finished 23rd in points in 1977 with 4 top ten finishes, the best showing by a
female in the modern era. Three woman competed in the 1977 Firecracker 400, the
first time that had happened since 1949.

· Wendell Scott won the 100-mile race at Jacksonville
on December 1, 1963. It remains to date the only race won by an
African-American driver. Scott actually had to complete 202 laps of the
scheduled 200 that day, and Buck Baker was flagged the winner. Scott protested,
and 4 hours later NASCAR decided he had indeed won, blaming a scoring error.
Some folks will point out, by that point the crowd had gone home, and guess
NASCAR was afraid how the crowd would have reacted to a black driver winning.
Someone stole the trophy before Wendell could receive it.

· The most events ever run in a Grand National season
was 62 in 1964. The least amount of races was 8 in 1949, followed by 19 in
1950. The least amount of races in the modern era was 28 in 1973.

· When Bill Elliott won the Winston Million, he was
showered with fake cash by Winston in winner's circle. Unfortunately most of
them had his last name misspelled "Eliott".
Of course, Bill was in a forgiving mood that day. Some member of his pit crew
had installed the number 9 decal on the roof of his Ford upside down as well.

· During a modified race, legendary stock car
independent driver Soapy Castles was leading a race. Crowd favorite Curtis Turner
was a lap down and trying to make up that lap. Castles didn't want Turner back
on the lead lap, because Curtis would restart right on his rear bumper after
the next caution, and anyone who ever raced against Curtis knew you didn't want
a rearview mirror full of Turner if you were between him and the checkers. The
flagman kept waving the "Move Over" flag at Castles, who found an
unusual way to get that fellow to reconsider. He pulled a handgun, and shot the
flag out of the starter's hand.

*Matt can no longer
field comments or email at Race Fans Forever. If you have comments or
questions, please leave them below and I’ll do my best to supply answers.
~PattyKay Lilley, Senior Editor.

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Race Fans Forever are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of Race Fans Forever. Race Fans Forever is not affiliated with NASCAR or any other motorsports sanctioning body in any form..